BehanVox: A Brief History Of Who Governs India’s Forests
This week in BehanVox: stories of women agri entrepreneurs cultivating forest foods in Tamil Nadu, 'rescue raids' displace sex workers in Mumbai's Kamathipura, and more
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This week, we bring you yet another sparkling explainer on why indigenous forest dwellers continue to be turfed out of their homes though there is a strong law to protect them. And a story on the women agri entrepreneurs of drought-hit Karur district in Tamil Nadu who are cultivating forest foods.
Story So Far
Tumadiya Khatta sits on the fringes of the Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand. It is home to the nomadic Muslim Van Gujjar community that herds buffaloes for a livelihood. In summers they move to the high altitude pastures with their cattle and when the cold sets in they come down to the foothills. With time they settled in fixed locations because urbanisation and conservation policies dating as far back as 1900s did not allow them this lifestyle any longer and they have now been paying grazing license fees since 1957.
When forest officials destroyed their crops in late May the Van Gujjars stayed silent. “We did not say anything because we were afraid they would destroy our houses too,” says Zainab, a resident. Her cynicism is understandable– ten years ago, officials had destroyed their houses and crops with no notice and when they went to the police no one heeded their complaint.
But as a community that lived in the area for over three generations they have individual community rights over the forest lands and its resources under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act — popularly called the FRA. So 31 families filed claims under the Act. But despite multiple reminders, the aggrieved families have yet to get any response. And forest officials still treat them as “encroachers” against whom criminal cases have been filed, their electricity supply snapped and they have been served with multiple eviction notices.
The latest notice that they received was on April 28 which they have appealed against. While they wait to hear from the court, their crops have been destroyed yet again. For the while the court has stopped evictions. But the Van Gujjar existence remains tenuous and fragile.
Shreya Raman explores why despite a radical shift in forest governance brought on by FRA, indigenous forest dwellers across India – from the Van Gujjars of Tumadiya Khatta to the Jenu Kurubas of Nagarhole – continue to face eviction. The root cause, she finds, is poor implementation of the Act and the powers and resources held by forest departments.
Read our story here.
Last week, in our Women in Climate Action series, we featured the women of Kochi’s coastal villages who have to bear the daily brunt of increasingly disruptive tidal floods. And how they are part of a mapping initiative to study these floods. This week, we report on the women in drought hit Tamil Nadu districts who are cultivating food forests to run sustainable and ethical agri businesses.
Saroja Kumar’s food forest, Nandhavanam, in Lingamanaickenpatti village of Karur district in central Tamil Nadu. Spread across over 10 acres, it is interspersed with layers of trees, roots, and creepers, with focus on food crops like amla or mulberry rather than commercial cash crops like rubber or tobacco. There are 500 coconut trees, layered with 500 trees of other varieties like jamun, banana, and mulberry.
The alternate farming method based on natural farming practices and the concept of organic food first was shown to be effective in Japan was then brought to the state by agri evangelist G Nammalvar in the 1980s.
In the locality and in Chennai’s activist circles and beyond, Saroja akka or Saroja ‘madam’, as she is known, is a legend. She calls herself an activist, not an entrepreneur. In the early days, her husband – a businessman – was skeptical about her working in agriculture and the idea of a food forest. He urged her to begin her forest far from the house, and far from his sight.
“This perspective persisted for a long time among other locals and my family but after a few years of protest – and once the awards started flying in – their mouths stopped,” she recalls.
For Saroja, the forest food revolution is about political and social awakening too. And she has inspired other women to follow in her path.
Read our story here.
Talking Point
‘Rescue’ Raids: The government housing body of Maharashtra, MHADA is all set to redevelop the historic Kamathipura area of Mumbai. It is also known to be home to many of the city’s sex workers. Last Friday, 44 sex workers from here were “rescued” in police raids though they are in the profession of their free will. Sex workers allege that such raids have intensified in the last year and a half and are linked to the redevelopment project. Stay tuned for our ground report on this soon.
Facial Recognition: We have reported on the many misgivings around the government’s multiple pushes to use facial recognition tools for beneficiaries of government programmes. The Karnataka government first announced on June 21 an inexplicable plan to implement a mobile based, AI-driven facial recognition attendance system in government schools supposedly to help with monitoring of schemes such as distribution of mid-day meals and uniforms for children. Three days later, in the face of public opposition to the proposed surveillance of school children, the idea was dropped.
Run Faith Run: In Paris this week, Faith Kipyegon tried to run a mile in under four minutes — and make history. The barrier, first broken in 1954 by Roger Bannister and since passed by almost 2,100 men, had never been surpassed by a woman.
The Kenyan runner, 31, and three-time Olympic gold medalist, didn’t break the record this time. But her new time set on Thursday at Stade Charlety in Paris was still the fastest ever recorded by a woman for a mile, and broke the previous record she set in 2023.
First Woman Head For MI6: Many of us had wept at the sight of Judi Dench, playing the unflinching first woman M in the Bond universe, ‘dying’ in the arms of Daniel Craig’s 007 in Skyfall. Now we have some real-life consolation – the British government appointed Blaise Metreweli as the country’s first woman to serve as the chief of MI6. However, this seasoned spook will be codenamed C, not M which was apparently a figment of Ian Fleming’s creative imagination.
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